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| Paper: |
Transit Spectroscopy of the Extrasolar Planet HD 209458b |
| Volume: |
420, Bioastronomy 2007: Molecules, Microbes and Extraterrestrial Life |
| Page: |
321 |
| Authors: |
Rojo, P.; Harrington, J.; Deming, D.; Fortney, J. |
| Abstract: |
An attempt to detect water in the atmosphere of the extrasolar planet HD 209458b using transit spectroscopy is presented. A radiative transfer model, designed and built specifically for this project, predicts the dependence in wavelength of the stellar spectrum modulation due to a transiting planet, given a planetary temperature/pressure/composition profile. A total of 352 spectra around 1.8 microns were obtained during three transit events using ISAAC at the Very Large Telescope.
Correlating the modeled modulation with the infrared spectra yields a non-detection of water in the atmosphere of HD 209458b due to overwhelming contamination from telluric water lines.
Original data-reduction techniques that were developed during this work are also presented. |
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